In what currently feels like a lifetime ago, I discovered Nina Revoyr and her wonderful novel about life amongst the super elite in LA, A Student of History. It opened up to me an LA that I had no idea existed and that has fascinated me ever since. Although I hadn’t exactly forgotten Revoyr recently, […]
Robert Galbraith is a fantastic crime writer. Maybe it’s because he’s a she and she’s JK Rowling. Yes, the very same and yes, Harry Potter. Now that’s over with, and in case you were in any doubt – which frankly you might have been if, like me, you ever tried to read Rowling’s The Casual […]
For a book with a very sweet title, Little Bee really knocks all expectations or preconceived notions, out of the park. My friend, Ms B, had lent the book to me, based on a couple of recommendations I had given her. She had told me little, aside from that it was a really good story […]
There are some books that are just written to become movies and I have to say that, with the right casting, The French Girl by Lexie Elliott could be one of them! I chanced across this book whilst having a wander through Bookshop Santa Cruz, and yet again it was another simple case of liking […]
I think that the last time I wrote about a Lisa Jewell book I felt exhausted. A little worn out after having read so many of her novels in a relatively short period of time, a few of which had made me feel profoundly sad. When I picked up Watching You I felt that I […]
There are certain books that you read which are impossible not to find profoundly disturbing. I’m not talking here of murders stories or supernatural tales, but the rather more mundane. The novels where you find yourself questioning whether something so simple is actually possible? The problem being that, if you believe it is, then could […]
Fiction and reality blur fabulously in The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz. Last summer I had read and really enjoyed The Magpie Murders, but hadn’t pulled the trigger (sorry!) on buying another Horowitz until I found myself splurging at Bookshop Santa Cruz. When you end up buying upwards of five books, you start to […]
Full disclosure with this one, I know Heidi Perks. We don’t know each other well, but for the last twenty-five years or so we have shared a very dear friend, Mrs D. This means we’ve been to parties, hen nights, that kind of thing together. I still hear about her whenever I go home, so […]
If you know me at all, you will understand that I am not one of life’s happy campers. I can appreciate the beauty of the great outdoors without experiencing any desire at all to sleep in it. My back is designed to carry a simple day pack, not a tent or a stove. I value […]
As I read Where the Crawdads Sing, one thought kept going around and around in my mind: what must this novel have done for North Carolina tourism? Honestly, if the The Husband wasn’t such a slave to the office and the kids weren’t constrained by the restrictions of school, I think that I would be […]
Nutshell Book Reviews 